Male infertility is one of the major factors causing infertility. According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2,000, the global infertility rate was about 15%, in which male factors accounted for about 50%. Infertility rate in some countries in Europe is up to 30%. There are complex and various factors for male infertility, including abnormal and dysfunction of many factors, such as anatomy structure and function of the reproductive system, hormone regulation, the genetic material, and infection immunity.
At present, most researches for these factors remain at single gene level or the genome level. However, protein is the real executor of physical function in the organism, therefore, the above molecular genetics research can not reflect the information regarding post-transcriptional regulation for a gene, changes in protein expression levels, or post-translational modification for a protein, etc. Besides, the mRNA level in cells will not be consistent with the protein expression abundance, therefore, it is particularly important to study the mechanism for male infertility on the protein level.
There are studies indicating that male infertility is not an independent disease, but resulted from the synthetic action of various diseases or multiple factors. The causes for male infertility are quite complex, and at present, the methods for routine semen detection are limited, therefore, the expression level for proteins in the seminal plasma can not be analyzed systemically.
In summary, so far, little has been known about male infertility-associated proteins during human sperm maturity, not to mention the detection methods for such proteins. Thus, it is urgent to develop effective methods and products to detect male fertility-associated proteins.